


Nurse on the Nile

by DesertVixen



Category: Cherry Ames - Helen Wells & Julie Tatham, Miss Marple - Agatha Christie
Genre: Community: intoabar, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-10
Updated: 2015-05-10
Packaged: 2018-03-29 20:33:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,271
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3909694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DesertVixen/pseuds/DesertVixen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A cruise ship is a village all its own.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nurse on the Nile

It was so kind of Raymond and Joyce to give her a holiday, thought Miss Jane Marple as she worked on her knitting. As much as she loved her home in St. Mary Mead, Jane had to admit that winters seemed to become longer and drearier each year. Egypt’s dry climate was warmer, but quite refreshing, and the scenery along the Nile was very different from her own village and garden. 

Raymond and Joyce had booked Jane passage on a Nile cruise from Cairo to Luxor, as well as a nice hotel stay in Luxor, where they would meet her. The cruise stopped in several places with different options for sightseeing along the way. However, Jane found many of them too tiring for a lady of her condition. She had gone on the first sightseeing tour, but she owned that she was far more interested in living people than in the creation of people who had been dead for thousands of years.

In that respect, she enjoyed passing her days on the boat, which was very much like a village of its own, at least for the duration of the trip. Jane watched passengers returning the boat, and wondered how the evening would go. So far the evenings had been fairly quiet, with some decorous dancing.

Her friends had often gently teased her over her love of watching people and comparing everything to the inhabitants of St. Mary Mead, but Jane could not deny that she found it a pleasant pastime. People so constantly overlooked an old woman with her knitting, especially if she happened to be resting her eyes…

*** ***

Nursing had afforded Cherry Ames a wide variety of opportunities. Some of her friends teased her about her inability to work at one steady job (or date one steady man, for that matter) but Cherry knew that she simply hadn’t found the right opportunity or the right man. So when an acquaintance of her brother’s had contacted her about a temporary nurse-companion job for an elderly aunt going on a trip to Europe and Egypt, Cherry had jumped on the chance. It had been a good decision, although if she was honest, her employer really did not need the services of a nurse. It suited Miss Eleanor Ferguson to not have Cherry wear her starched white uniform, and to act as a travel companion. There were days when her employer chose to rest and take the day easy, but today they had spent a lovely day sightseeing.

Miss Ferguson had declared her intention to have a lie-down before dinner. Cherry spied one of the other passengers, an elderly British lady with whom her employer enjoyed eating some of the meals with. Cherry had found that eating with them was always an interesting experience, especially if the topic of conversation was other people.

“Are you enjoying your day, Miss Marple?”

“Oh, yes,” Jane replied. “It’s been very peaceful with almost everyone gone off on one tour or another.”

Cherry took the seat next to her, while watching the last passengers as they returned to the boat. The Morency party was the last to return to the boat, as usual. Anthony and Charlotte Morency were a rich English couple, traveling on their honeymoon with Charlotte’s younger sister Elizabeth. Cherry found it a little strange that they would have company on the honeymoon, but Elizabeth seemed to act as a secretary for her older sister.

Cherry looked over, and saw Miss Marple’s frown as the trio passed by them, Charlotte dominating the conversation as usual. When they had disappeared from sight, Jane Marple shook her head.

“It is a very silly idea to bring temptation along on one’s honeymoon,” she said softly.

“What do you mean?” Cherry had heard the phrase that Victorian minds resembled sinks, but Miss Marple was her first real example of that quaint phrase actually meant. Although as a nurse, Cherry had plenty of opportunities to see the bad side of people, she had also lived through a few events where she had been surprised at how good people really could be.

“One sister has all the money, and one sister has all the looks. Mr. Morency may wish that there was some way for him to have both.”

That much was true, Cherry reflected. Charlotte Morency and Elizabeth Blackwell were half-sisters who shared the same father. However, Charlotte Morency’s mother had been a very rich woman, whose estate had been left in trust for her daughter until Charlotte was married. Elizabeth Blackwell was not penniless, but had a comfortable income that fell short of the millions her sister had. 

On the other hand, Elizabeth was far more attractive than her older sister. Charlotte Morency attracted attention, but the attraction was more from her fine clothing and jewelry, rather than her own person. She was not ugly, Cherry thought, just not memorable. Anthony Morency was a handsome gentleman, who seemed devoted to his wife, but there had been a few moments when she had watched him with his sister-in-law, and wondered. 

She wondered about the night before last, when Charlotte Morency had come down with a violent attack of food poisoning. Although her primary duty was to Miss Ferguson, Cherry was unable to turn down a person in need of medical attention, especially when it was a relatively simple matter. So she had given the woman some medicine to help clear out her stomach, and sat up with her over the evening.

Or the occasion early in the trip, when a heavy piece of ancient Egyptian masonry had fallen and nearly hit Charlotte Morency when her husband was nowhere to be seen… Cherry shook her head slightly. The two older women and their gossip were apparently rubbing off on her.

“Oh, I don’t think they will try anything else on the cruise,” Jane Marple said as she went on placidly with her knitting. “I suspect if they did, that Superintendent Mitchell would be a little suspicious.” 

The retired police inspector and Jane Marple had talked a few times, once they discovered they did have mutual acquaintances, and while she had not shared as much with him as she would have with her own Sir Henry Clithering, Jane felt sure he was quite awake to the possibilities. It was so much more interesting than listening to the inevitable reminisces about India from the other retired gentleman on board.

“They?” Cherry echoed.

“Well, of course, my dear.” Jane Marple shook her head again. “They would have to be in it together, or he would have to be quite sure that she would be willing to marry him. Otherwise, it is quite a worthless risk.” The older woman collected her knitting and the various articles that were around her chair. “I think I have had enough sun for today. Will I see you at dinner?”

Cherry nodded, somewhat absently, and stayed there a long time afterwards, watching the river and wondering… 

**** **** ****

Miss Jane Marple folded the newspaper, and set it aside. The headline story about the tragic death of Charlotte Morency in an automobile accident, just after returning from her honeymoon, was sadly not entirely a surprise. Jane thought perhaps she might talk to Sir Henry about her trip, if he was interested.

There was also a letter from Cherry Ames, explaining that she had a few days in England before she went back to America, having finished her job with Miss Ferguson. The young woman wondered if Miss Marple would mind if she came down from London to visit St. Mary Mead. 

Jane thought perhaps they could have a very nice visit.

**Author's Note:**

> So, timeline wise, it would be hard to make this one really work, as it would have to be later 40s/early 50s. But borrowing the general idea of "Death on the Nile" and letting Jane Marple and Cherry Ames play in it seemed like a good idea!


End file.
